1 a round object used for throwing, hitting or kicking in games and sports:
a golf / tennis / cricket ball * Bounce the ball and try and hit it over the net.
2 a round object or a thing that has been formed into a round shape:
The sun was a huge ball of fire low on the horizon. * a ball of string * Some animals roll themselves into a ball for protection.
3 a kick or hit of the ball in some sports, or (in cricket) a throw of the ball by the BOWLER to the BATSMAN:
He sent over a high ball.
4 (in baseball) a throw by the PITCHER that the BATTER does not have to hit because it is not accurate
5 ~ of the foot / hand the part underneath the big toe or the thumb
6 [usuallypl.] (!!!, informal) a TESTICLE
seealsoBALLS
7 a large formal party with dancing
IDIOMS
a ball and chain (BrE) a problem that prevents you from doing what you would like to do
the ball is in your / sb's court it is your/sb's responsibility to take action next:
They've offered me the job, so the ball's in my court now.
get / set / start / keep the ball rolling to make sth start happening; to make sure that sth continues to happen
have a ball (informal) to enjoy yourself a lot
have something / a lot on the ball (AmE, informal) to be capable of doing a job very well; to be intelligent
(be) on the ball to be aware of and understand what is happening and able to react quickly:
The new publicity manager is really on the ball.
play ball (with sb) (informal) to be willing to work with other people in a helpful way, especially so that sb can get what they want
Part of speech: verb
1 to form sth or be formed into the shape of a ball:
[V] Her hands balled into fists. * [VN] My hands were balled into fists.
2 [VN] (AmE, !!!, slang) (of a man) to have sex with a woman
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for ball is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is ball a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, ball is tagged as noun.
Does ball appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — ball appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
